Well, it took a lot less time for me to give in and read Game of Thrones than Harry Potter. What can I say? I’m really growing as a person. Or a reader. Either way, growing.
After the emotional roller coaster that was season 7 of Game of Thrones I started digging into all types of fan theories and predictions on the interwebs, and I dug myself into a deep enough hole that I decided to just read the books already and figure it out for myself. It was quite an intense few months!
And because it’s just too much to summarize, and everyone else in the world has already analyzed it to death, here are my random thoughts on each book in the series, particularly in comparison with (what I remember from) the show:
- The hints at Jon Snow actually being a Targaryen/the one true king and not Ned Stark’s bastard start SUPER-EARLY — like, when he’s talking to Lord Commander Mormont and the raven keeps saying “KING!” while looking at Jon? Come on. No wonder it was a fan theory so early on!
- Call me crazy or forgetful or both, but I honestly do not remember Dany being pregnant. Of course I remember the death of Kahl Drogo (whom I like to call Carl, personally), and her “giving birth” to the dragons in the fire, but the actual pregnancy? Drawing a blank.
- As with the show, the Dany parts of the book are my favorite. She is just the most interesting character with the most compelling storyline and most legitimate claim to the throne (besides Jon, but we know about Dany first).
- George R.R. Martin really loves talking about people’s outfits. And food. The descriptions of what people are wearing and eating are far more in-depth than the descriptions of who they are and what they’re doing, and I kind of love it. Not-so-secretly a fashionista-foodie, eh Georgie?
- Ok, so the Renly Baratheon-Loras Tyrell romance was almost completely invented for the show. It is definitely hinted at a couple of times in the books, but the show went FULLY into it.
- That weird girl and her brother who help Bran escape come along this early? I could have sworn that wasn’t until season 4 or 5.
- The books give me a MUCH better understanding of Varys, Littlefinger and Jorah Mormont. I honestly did not pay enough attention to them on the show, and I should have, because I never knew what was going on in their scenes, and now I do.
- Why, why, why, why WHY did the Greyjoys have to get involved? Theon taking Winterfell on his stupid father’s instructions wasn’t tied to any Baratheon or Lannister throne claim, it was just for fun, just for the sake of another battle. That is so beyond effed up!
- AND, the Greyjoys getting so involved is I feel like what inspired the big bad Boltons to get so involved, and they are undoubtedly the ultimate worst.
- Speaking of Theon, was the original “Reek” not on the show?
- Ok, I have ACCURATELY identified a discrepancy between the show and the book, and confirmed with others: Arya was never Tywin Lannister’s servant at Harrenhal, she was only (briefly) Roose Bolton’s. Hah!
- Battle scenes are MUCH more interesting on TV than in the books. I mean, duh, right? I just can’t follow all the intricacies of war via words, I need visuals.
- On the show, doesn’t Samwell Tarly find some dragonglass when they visit that gross old man wildling with all the wives/daughters (ew) and kill a white walker with it? That did NOT happen when they were there in this book!
- Aha, HERE is where Samwell Tarly finds the dragonglass and kills the white walker. I knew I didn’t imagine that.
- So, again, another love story almost entirely only for the show: Robb and Jeyne. The book doesn’t show their romance develop at all, he just comes home all married and sh!t, and then goes and gets everyone murdered by the Freys because of it.
- Also, in the show, wasn’t Jeyne some kind of a peasant girl/nurse from Volantis, not a Lady of one of the high houses?
- Was the Theon Greyjoy and Ramsay Bolton stuff ALSO just for the show? He, like, disappears halfway through this book, presumably with Ramsay, but there are no torture scenes. Which I am totally ok with. I really, really hate the Boltons. And the Greyjoys.
- So much happens (and so many people die) in this book, it’s insane. The Red Wedding, The Purple Wedding (which is what I like to call Joffrey being poisoned at his wedding to Margaery), the Night’s Watch falling apart, Littlefinger pushing Aunt Lysa out the moon door — it’s no wonder they started splitting the books into multiple seasons. This is my favorite book so far.
- OK, MOST MAJOR TV SHOW-BOOK DISCREPANCY SO FAR: CATELYN STARK COMES BACK TO LIFE! HELLO?!
- Ugh, I’ve reached Arya’s Braavos storyline, which I am very bored by. It’s not that I don’t think Arya is an interesting character, I just don’t understand how this stuff fits into the greater story.
- Ugh, I’ve also reached the part of the story where the Greyjoys are even more involved. Not only can I not really keep any of the Iron Islands names (people or places) straight, I don’t really care to. I try to get through these chapters as fast as possible.
- I kind of feel the same way about the Dorne chapters, too, even though I know I shouldn’t. For some reason they just don’t grab me as much.
- Perhaps it’s partially because Georgie switched from using actual characters’ names at the beginning of each “chapter” to using their descriptions, i.e. “The Drowned Man” and “The Queenmaker”? Like, why all of a sudden in Book 4 do I have to try to figure out who’s telling the story?
- My husband said he started to like Jaime and Cersei (separately) a lot more because of reading their perspectives in the books, which this particular book does a lot of, and I’m still waiting to feel any sort of positive feelings toward either one of them. They are interesting, sure, but they’re @ssholes, and they’re TWIN brother and sister and they’re banging each other. No matter what else they do or say, that will forever prevent me from thinking they are anything other than awful. (This coming from the girl who has been rooting for the Dany-Jon Snow #baephew for years.)
- Ok, so this book focuses entirely on King’s Landing and the minor lords/ladies/families/houses tied to them, and has nothing about the Wall or Dany, which I kind of knew in the back of my mind but forgot until the very end, so I hereby declare it my LEAST FAVORITE GAME OF THRONES BOOK!
- The fifth and final (for now) book takes place at about the same time as the fourth, mostly. So now not only do I have to remember a million names and places, I also have to remember what was happening at the same time in the last book. K.
- The fifth and final book contains a great deal of things the show never even mentions, and now I understand why Georgie may never finish the books. It will be very hard to reconcile the two completely different story trajectories.
- For example, Quentyn Martell, son of Doran Martell, is secretly on his way to propose marriage to Dany, and this guy is never even mentioned in the show. I for one would have loved to see some Martell-Targaryen action.
- Also for example, AEGON TARGARYEN, SON OF RHAEGAR, IS STILL ALIVE? The baby whose head was smashed against the wall was a different baby (similar to how the boys who Theon burned at Winterfell weren’t really Bran and Rickon. Speaking of Rickon, where the f is he?). And, coincidentally, Aegon is ALSO on his way to propose marriage to Dany, even though he’s her nephew, just like Jon! (Maybe that’s where HBO got that particular love story idea from? I’m starting to confuse myself.)
- Also also for example, Sansa Stark never even meets Ramsay Bolton. In the book, they pretend to wed him to Arya, but it’s really Sansa’s friend Jeyne in not-so-good disguise. And that Battle of the Bastards doesn’t seem to happen either.
- Side note: I am so thankful that, like some of the aforementioned romances, the books do not go into too much detail about what Ramsay does to people, physically. It is more than hinted at, but at least we don’t have to be in those scenes, you know what I mean?
- I of course remember the dragons coming to the fighting pits in Meereen to burn all the Sons of the Harpy (TBH probably my favorite scene in the entire TV series), but I don’t remember that taking place after Dany’s wedding to a Meereen nobleman, and the TV scene made the dragon(s) seem much more heroic than the book scene.
- After careful consideration, I actually think Jon Snow would make the better ruler. Dany obviously has some serious, even mystical, powers, but she’s not so good at the whole leading people thing. Jon seems to be better at that, except for the whole getting-stabbed-to-death-by-his-brothers thing.
- The fifth book ends about 3 seasons behind the TV show, but the two have so many differences it’s hard to figure out what the “real” story is, if there is even such a thing. I lean toward the TV show because it’s what I knew first, and apparently the HBO writers know what Georgie has planned for book 6 (and book 7?), but…I just don’t know.
- The difference that bothers me the most is Aegon Targaryen being alive — how could that not be in the show? Oh, wait, Jon Snow’s real name is Aegon Targaryen. So, then, Rhaegar and Elia named one baby Aegon and Rhaegar and Lyanna named another baby Aegon? Or is it all supposed to be the same person?
As you can see, even after reading all of these wonderful and thrilling books, I still don’t feel like I have the answers I was looking for. Perhaps I should now rewatch the entire TV series from the beginning, and all will be revealed. (Yea, not likely.)
Katie Boe 
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